1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a counting apparatus for carrier tape, and more particularly to a two-way counting apparatus for carrier tape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has become common in the industry to package tested integrated circuits (ICs) in carrier tape, which is characterized by a flexible strip of plastic with pockets formed at regular intervals along its length, so as to the ICs can be handled or picked-up easily. In this method, the ICs are loaded and counted by automatic apparatus. FIG. 1A shows a part view of automatic counting apparatus for the carrier tape. A carrier tape 10 includes component pockets 11 for loading and carrying the qualified ICs. Each of the pocket 11 includes a hole 12 located in mid of its bottom, and the hole 12 is thus usually named as mid-hole. Take an upward view from beneath the carrier tape 10, there is a space 14 presented between two adjacent pockets 11.
A pair of detectors 15A is installed above and under the carrier tape 10, and the other detectors 15B is provided on the left and right side. Each pair of detectors includes an emitter (such as infrared ray emitter) and a sensor. The detectors 15A are utilized for detecting the position of the hole 12, and the detectors 15B record the start position of next loading by sensing the position of the end of the space 14.
“Solid” (loaded with one IC in the pocket) or “Null” (without loaded IC in the pocket) can be detected by the detectors 15A of conventional automatic counter, as shown in FIG. 1B. If the error loading was detected, for example a Null was detected in one pocket that it should be Solid therein, the operator would pause the counter, rewinding the tape for an amount, loading with one IC in the pocket, restarting the tape and reel machine and the counter so as to the number of loaded ICs can be counted again. However, the counter counts incrementally as the carrier tape advancing a predetermined amount, but it cannot count decreasingly as the carrier tape reversing, and consequently the final counting result would be wrong.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a novel apparatus that allows for counting of inventory in two-ways on a tape and reel machine and allows for recording the position of tape precisely.